Road Sweep

The Red Hot Red Sox continue their winnings ways, the Celtics prepare for the draft tomorrow night, and the Boston.com image gets tarnished once again. All in a Monday morning edition of BSMW.

The Red Sox polished off a perfect 6-0 road trip with a 12-8 win in Philadelphia over the Phillies yesterday afternoon. In the process, Manny Ramirez hit his 19th career grand slam, tying him for second place all time in that category, behind only Lou Gehrig’s 23. The Red Sox did have an 8-1 lead in the fifth inning, but the Phillies came roaring back to tie the game before the Red Sox put them away with four more runs. Gordon Edes looks at the afternoon for David Wells and company in steamy Philadelphia. Jeff Horrigan looks at the club finishing up their “fantastic voyage” with the win. Steven Krasner looks at the Red Sox red-hot offense, which allows them the luxury of never having to panic, even when the other team roars back to tie the game. David Heuschkel notes that Wells “aggravated the plantar fasciitis in his right foot” yesterday, but there is no work on if it will affect his next start. David Borges looks at the “litany of impressive Sox streaks” which continued yesterday.

Lenny Megliola wonders if these Red Sox are simply too good to be true. On the other hand, Michael Silverman cautions that it is way too early to be getting cocky. Dan Shaughnessy beats up on Mark Bellhorn despite the second baseman’s 3-4 performance yesterday which included a home run and three RBI. Shaughnessy’s column from yesterday, which proclaimed that the Red Sox would be a runaway winner in the AL East even made it onto the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball telecast, where Joe Morgan said he talked to Derek Jeter and Gary Sheffield about it. Horrigan also has a brief sidebar on Mark Bellhorn and his hot afternoon. Silverman looks at David Wells having two sore spots yesterday, his foot and the home plate umpire. John Tomase looks at how the Red Sox are suddenly the beasts of the AL East. We’ll have more on Tomase and his appearance on NECN’s Sports Late Night last night later on today.

Horrigan’s notebook looks at Manny’s chase of the Iron Horse. Borges’ notebook looks at an eventful day for David Wells in Philly. Edes’ notebook has Wells giving a few thoughts on the struggling Yankees. Krasner’s notebook looks at an extremely impressive week for Manny Ramirez, one which should garner him player of the week honors. Heuschkel’s notebook looks at Bill Mueller, who has been consistent and clutch this season, making it hard for the Red Sox not to re-sign him.

The Yankees rallied to beat the Mets and avoid being swept at home. Get those stories and more on the NBA draft over at the New York Sports News page.

Steve Bulpett reports on Danny Ainge making a weekend trip to watch a lottery pick work out, and also pretty much closing the door on a return to Boston for Gary Payton. The veteran point guard had been on Fox Sports BDSSP last week and indicated that his number one choice would be to return to the Celtics. Peter May has a look at the top high school prospect in the draft, Gerald Green. According to May in the article, this will be the last year in which high school players will be able to be drafted. Ken Davis looks at the centers available in the draft. Zach Rocha looks at the choice facing the Milwaukee Bucks at the top of the draft, taking either Marvin Williams or Andrew Bogut.

John Powers has an article in the Globe this morning where he examines the idea of “cost certainty” in professional sports, an idea that doesn’t seem realistic to many. He quotes Marvin Miller as saying that slavery is a form of cost certainty. Powers looks at the topic in light of the night NBA labor deal and with the NHL still trying to come up with a new agreement.

Frank Dell’Apa looks at the Revolution having to deal with losing a few of their top players to National team duty for most of the month of July. Gus Martins looks at one of those players, Steve Ralston, who scored the game winner for the Revs on Saturday night. Martins has a brief note on the substitions by Revs coach Steve Nicol.

I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention in passing the incident which happened on Friday afternoon over at Boston.com. The Dirt Dogs page ran a headline “Welcome Back Tito” and under the headline was a black and white photo, presumably from the 1950’s, of a black man surrounded by a mob of white men, one of whom was kicking him in the chest. Underneath the photo was the caption “Philly Fans Greet Francona as He Returns Home”. The photo was only up for a short time before it was yanked, and then later on that night the following statement was issued on the site by Boston.com management:

Note to users: Earlier today, Boston Dirt Dogs used a photo on this page that was offensive and inappropriate. There was no malicious intent behind the posting. We removed the photo immediately, and we apologize to any users who saw it during the brief time it was on the site.

I also received copies of emails from several readers who had written in to the Boston.com general manager to protest the use of the photo, and they all received the exact same response, which was very similar to the above statement. The story was significant enough to be mentioned on the FOX25 newscast that night.

Katie Johnston Chase looks at WEEI yanking the offensive DNA home testing kit advertisement off their airwaves. Good move by station management, that ad, along with the Jack Diamond ads – a lawyer who promises to help you beat a drunk driving charge – did not do the station any favors in terms of positive image. But one suggestion…how about listening to the ads before you run them on the station?